To Unpublish or not to Unpublish...

1. 85

   DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years ago

   I have a series of 3 hubs on a topic.  I originally labeled them as parts I,II and III.
   
   However, I have since learned that such a device is not to the liking of either HP or Google.
   
   I started to edit them, one at a time, and found some awkwardness (I must have written while I was tired), and then I got tangled up in keeping the sections of the topic straight...
   
   SO,  would it be better to just sort of 'scrap' them, unpublish, and work on them offline at my leisure, and re-publishing when they are more polished?
   
   I know I've read somewhere on here that 'unpublishing' is a drastic move that can be ill-advised.
   What do you think with this situation?
   
   (As it is, they are still 'out there,' in all their imperfect glory of half-finished edits; certainly not up to my standards, or probably HP's either.)
   
   Thanks for any ideas.

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   1. 82

      jackclee lmposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Your hubs seems like a prime candidate for a hubbook. I would create a table of contents hub and link to the 3  related hubs as chapter 1, 2 and 3.
      Check out my hub on "how to create a hubbook." 
      So far, I have created 20 such hubbooks. That's the way I found to manage 300 hubs of various topics.
      Good luck.

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   2. 80

      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      @Dzy,
      I have to agree with jackclee on this one. Makes good sense. Oh, Happy New Year to you.

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   3. 92

      Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If they are getting traffic, and have some "link juice" you risk losing that if you unpublish them. If they are not, and they don't, then I don't think it would matter much if you unpublished them.
      
      You could just copy the text to work on offline, while leaving the hubs published as they are. Then just update each one all at once, instead of leaving it half-edited.

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      1. 88

         bravewarriorposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I agree with Sherry. Leave them in place while you work on them offline, then edit them live.
         
         I write all my hubs in Word, then copy/paste to the HP capsules. That way I have permanent record of my work and can edit them without removing the live versions.

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   4. 83

      Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, @Dzy, you may better unpublish them and edit them at your leisure so that you can give a fresh, more appealing look to those articles. If you keep them there and try to edit, you may be unable to present it in a better way as it can be uncomfortable to correct the whole thing perfectly.
      And, Jackclee's advice seems a very good thing. You can do it after editing all the 3 hubs.

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      1. 77

         always exploringposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I unpublished a lot of my old hubs that were not receiving any traffic, then just this week I received a nice comment on a hub that was four years old, so now I'm thinking of possibly doing some editing instead of unpublishing them. I guess the best way is to print them and work on them offline.

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   5. 82

      peachpurpleposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      if you want to edit them, it is best to unpublish and do your edits. Of course, you won't be getting any views then..

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      1. 85

         DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Not really getting any views as it is, so I may as well do it right.  I think I'll have to copy them to a thumb drive, and pay to have the pages printed out; my printer is out of ink!
         But I've always found it easier to do a large edit with hard copy than on-screen!
         Thanks!

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   6. 92

      Christy Kirwanposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Hi DzyMsLizzy,
      
      What we recommend is turning each piece into a stand-alone article on whatever aspect of the series it focuses on. For example, rather than Cat Grooming Part I, II, III, etc, we recommend "Cat Grooming: How to Brush Your Cat," "Cat Grooming: How to Trim Kitty's Nails," etc.
      
      As others have mentioned, unpublishing is mostly an issue if your article is already getting traffic. If it's not getting much, there is very little risk to doing so and republishing when you're ready.

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      1. 85

         DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Christy!
           The articles in question were not getting any traffic, so I did unpublish them, and I printed them out to work on editing with a hard copy. (Easier for me that way.)
         I am, indeed, planning to put them into several new articles, as you suggest, with a common title and sub-titles for each item.  I don't know where my mind was when I originally wrote the pieces, but in re-reading them all. it's kind of a jumbled up mess, with things in the wrong article, etc.  Yikes!  I've got a project ahead of me! 

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         1. 83

            Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Wish you all the best, Dzy, in your, this project! Christy has suggested well examples for titles. I will also follow her suggestions in my blogs, elsewhere.

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2. 88

   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   The "dire risk" to which you refer is because Google takes time to rank our Hubs well.  Google likes freshness but it also likes age.   If a Hub is ranking well on Google and you unpublish it, Google will "forget" it.  Then when you publish it again, it will have to start all over again at the bottom of the heap.
   
   So, the obvious question is, how well were those Hubs ranking? If they weren't getting much Google traffic anyway, then it won't hurt much to unpublish them.

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3. 85

   DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years ago

   Thanks, everyone!
   
   It's funny; the traffic is dismal (0 -4 page views in all 3 columns for that stat), but they are somehow still showing the featured icon. 
   
   I'll be sure to look up jacklee's hub on hub books, as I've never heard of that, and have no clue how to do such a thing.
   
   Sherry and Brave Warrior, I should copy/paste them into Word; I don't think I wrote them that way, and even if I did, the originals are on the hard drive of the old computer, which has a dead power supply! 
   
   Marisa, thanks for clarifying that issue; they are almost certainly already 'dead' to Google...and because I began the process and did not finish, I'm sure at least one of them is a muddled mess, so I guess I'll go ahead and unpublish all three.
   
   Thanks again, everyone for your input, and have a wonderful New Year!  Stay safe out there!

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   1. 88

      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I've never heard of a Hubbook either, it's Jackclee's own invention, I think.   
      
      The official alternative is a Capstone Hub.  The program is now defunct, but it was a system whereby you write several Hubs, all on different aspects of the same topic, then write another Hub which provides an introduction to the topic and a link to each of the Hubs.   
      
      http://hubpages.com/community/capstone
      
      With only three Hubs on the topic, I don't think that's enough to make a Capstone.  Instead, leave them as a series and interlink them.   Google doesn't dislike series, it just dislikes Hubs that are labelled as a series with a repetitive title and numbered.

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      1. 85

         DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I've looked over all the articles, and have decided that they are far too long, and have too much info for one sitting, as a 'for beginners' topic.  I think I'd best break them down further, which may well result in 6 - 10 separate articles.
         
         I took a look at jacklee's hub on the topic.  You're correct.  He says he made up the method of making a 'book.'  It's basically a links capsule.

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         1. 88

            Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I would be very cautious about following that example. I wonder if those Hubs are fairly old, because I'd imagine they would fall foul of the new rules. Too many links, not enough text.   
            
            A good Capstone Hub is a Hub in its own right, plus the links.

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            1. 85

               DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I neglected to look at the dates; but it was far, far down in the list on his home page.  He says he invented the concept before he came here from Squidoo.
               
               I believe I have plenty of text to cover any links...I've begun the hard copy edit (yay!  my printer managed to print all the pages, though in light gray instead of black...LOL)
               
               It's really kind of a rambling mess..I don't know what I was thinking when I first published them!
               
               (And by the way--Happy New Year, Marisa--which I believe it already is where you live! )

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4. 85

   DzyMsLizzyposted 7 years ago

   Update on the original question...
   
   I did unpublish the series, and after looking it over, decided it was too jumbled to just edit, so I am re-doing the whole thing.  There will be more articles, breaking things down further, for better understanding.
   
   The new question, then, is:  should I get them all ready, and publish them all at once, or one at a time as I finish them?

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